Dallas Burning Questions: Season 3, Week 8

• How will the Southfork fire start? It’s no secret there’ll be another Ewing inferno in “Where There’s Smoke” — TNT’s promos for the episode show Southfork engulfed in flames. The question is: How does the blaze begin? There are lots of people living on the ranch these days, including Bobby and Ann (Patrick Duffy, Brenda Strong) and John Ross and Pamela (Josh Henderson, Julie Gonzalo), along with Sue Ellen (Linda Gray), Christopher (Jesse Metcalfe), Emma (Emma Bell), Elena (Jordana Brewster) and Carmen (Marlene Forte). Does one of these characters start the fire through some act of household carelessness? Or could the fire be an act of revenge by one of the many enemies who have the Ewings in their crosshairs?

• What will Pamela do?“Like a Bad Penny,” the previous episode, ended with Nicolas (Juan Pablo Di Pace) sending Pamela the video of John Ross having sex with Emma. We didn’t see Pamela receive Nicolas’s message, but TNT’s promo shows her walking in on John Ross and Emma together in bed, so the truth is going to come out, one way or another. The question is: How will Pamela respond? She has a mixed record of dealing with bad news: When Christopher dumped her at the end of Season 1, she vowed revenge and turned into a bitch-on-wheels, but when she lost her twins during Season 2, she went into an emotional tailspin. Which Pamela will we see tonight?

• Will Sue Ellen stop drinking? After Bobby and Ann sprang Sue Ellen from the sanitarium, they brought her home to Southfork, where she rankled John Ross by supporting Bobby’s decision to hire his old college buddy, banker Cal Hanna (Jonathan Adams), to shepherd Ewing Global through its initial public offering. Of course, business is probably the last thing on Sue Ellen’s mind. Her doctor warned Bobby and Ann that Sue Ellen will be “a danger to herself” if she doesn’t get her drinking under control. In that light, it’s probably worth pointing out that in the “Where There’s Smoke” publicity photo above, Sue Ellen is standing next to a liquor decanter. What, if anything, should we make of that?

• What’s up with the Rylands? Everyone and their mother are out to get the Ewings these days. In the case of the Rylands, that’s literally true: Although Harris (Mitch Pileggi) has been growing closer to Ann, he’s also been trying to frame John Ross for a sex crime with help from his bordello-running mama, Judith (Judith Light), and one of her prostitutes, Candace (Jude Demorest). But Harris’s plan suffered a setback: When he fired Candace, she blabbed about the scheme to Emma, who somehow nabbed the dress Candace was planning to use to incriminate John Ross. What’s Emma going to do with the dress? And what will Ann, Harris and Judith have to say about it?

• What’s up with the cartel? When Drew (Kuno Becker) returned to Dallas, he discovered J.R. swindled the Ramoses out of their land, vowed to make the whole Ewing family pay for J.R.’s greed and then disappeared into the night. Nicolas promised Elena he would use “every resource” at his disposal to find Drew and, true to his word, he sought help from his secret business partner: the Mexican gangster Luis (Antonio Jaramillo), who is in cahoots with Nicolas and Hunter McKay (Fran Kranz) in a secret plot to seize control of Ewing Global and use the company to launder the Mendez-Ochoa cartel’s drug money. If Luis finds Drew, what will he do with him? Also, does Nicolas’s connection to Luis mean the cartel is the Treviño benefactor that Lucia (Angélica Celaya) referred to a few episodes ago?

• What unexpected twists will occur? It’s also unclear where Christopher’s relationship with Heather (AnnaLynne McCord) is headed, especially now that we know her hard-drinking ex-husband, Bo (Donny Boaz), wants to reconcile with her. But this isn’t the only “x” factor to watch out for tonight. Entertainment Weekly’s latest issue teases “Where There’s Smoke” will include “adultery, a diaphragm sabotaged by a pin and a super-graphic threesome that would make Caligula blush.” Also, according to EW, the hour will end with “at least” four characters’ lives in danger. Who will they be? More importantly: What will we all do with ourselves until “Dallas’s” third season resumes in August?

Good one, Stephen…nice 80’s reference to Raoul and Tahresah. My money is going to be on Pamela starting the fire. My guess is that Pamela will view the email from Nicholas early in the show, and I also believe that she will discover that the Ewings framed her father, and instead of freaking out, the old Pam will emerge and will patiently wait. I believe she will catch John Ross and Emma at Southfork and somehow she will start the fire out of rage over his betrayal and the Ewing’s betrayal. Second guess is a drunk Sue Ellen starts it. Also I believe it’s the Emma issue that’s going to cause a major issue for Bobby and Ann, especially since Ann knew what was going on and didn’t tell Bobby. Going to be an amazing episode, probably the best episode in the 3 seasons.

im unsure about the 3some idea…if its Pam,John Ross and Emma;im going to push my tv into the Ewing pool..i however dont mind another Southfork fire..maybe they will remodel the interior to look more like the house did in the original 🙂 as far as Sue Ellen drinking, i think its serving its purpose but i betcha she comes back stronger and sober for the 2nd half of the season. i like the Christopher and Heather storyline,its really the most down-to-earth storyline theyve got going…id like to see more believable stories if the show gets renewed for another season. and also id like to see the entire Ramos family, including Joaquin/Nicholas, GONE!!!!

It was actually the entire five episode mini-series with the smaller houses you are referring to.
Here’s the problem with your theory. In order to go to that they’d have to abandon filming on the Southfork grounds all together. Remember they are only leasing Southfork from the owners to film there. To again have extra houses the owners would have to agree to it and then who would pay for it? I doubt TNT would supply that kind of budget. Now if the intention is to move to a soundstage to cut costs (much like the CBS show gradually did) then yes they could do what you propose.
In my opinion to use anything but the Southfork we know and love would be wrong.

Chris…look at the photo on top. Ann is dwarfing Sue Ellen. Remember scene when Sue Ellen was walking down the street shopping with Pam? She dwarfed her. Can you imagine a scene with Ann and Pam? Geez, they would look like Shaq and Scott Hamilton!!!!